


A Strand to Climb

by NeverComingHome



Category: Once Upon A Time - Fandom
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-04
Updated: 2013-04-04
Packaged: 2017-12-07 10:11:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/747328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeverComingHome/pseuds/NeverComingHome
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for an old songfic challenge (Fiona Apple/Paper bag). Set pre-series. Spoilers for the first season, haven't watched much of the recent.</p>
<p>Some things are meant to be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Strand to Climb

She tells him she's not the answer to his prayers and this isn't destiny after he's already kissed her because all he knows is she's not a woman or a wolf or the Girl who tried to save him. She remembers when Addie Mills' son pinned a young boy to the tree while it rained because instead of telling everyone who he was the stranger only howled, like shadows of things Red's grandmother told her to never follow in the dark. She did anyway and when he held out his hand palm up a wolf had snapped at the back of his shirt and tugged him away while he grinned at her with his teeth bared.

Now he tears holes into the red cloak and tells her to cut it out, to stop running and realize there is no good side when it comes to humans. Respect for the young and the old, protecting those you called family, none of it mattered to them in the end.

"Snow has always been there for me, since before I knew I was cursed."

"What kind of friend lets you think you're cursed?"

Red knows she'll never be a princess or sit crossed legs on carpeted floors and march porcelin dolls to toy altars; wear floorlength dresses and dance while a man in gold watches her with thoughts of wedding bliss. She knows sometimes happiness is chasing a boy and his wolf through the forest because it's getting dark and the moon will not wait for her to bring the red hood over her ears. She leaps atop him in the twilight, panting, his shoulders flattening the high grass.

"Feel safe now?" He taps the bunched up fabric to her nose.

"I never feel safe when the moon is out."

"You sound like them."

"I am them." She swings off him, taking the cloak as she does and double knotting it beneath her chin. "I'm not here to talk about my condition-"

"Gift."

"It's about the queen."

He remembers the first time he saw her. He'd intended to use the cloak he'd found tangled in the branches to treat the wounds of the beast. The wolf at his side had growled at it, but he knew what a creature in pain looked like. He'd lured it into a cave with warm meat, waited until it slept, then tied it down and treated the arrows in its paws and flank. When he awoke it was to a young woman, naked and confused, throwing a rock at him when just as confused he gawked for a moment at the absence of the monster.

~*~

"I saved her once already," he replies staring ahead as she stomps past him in the opposite direction.

One night after he killed a man who killed a monster he asked her to howl like she did when she was a girl in the woods who had strayed from her friends. Fearfully and without thought she'd lifted her head and bellowed in a language only he knew for someone to save her. Her grandmother had washed her mouth out with soap when the truth came out about how they'd found her.

She'd winced at the memory when he asked her and changed the subject.

~*~

They take over the castle and Red hears whispers that he's most definitely a lost cause. He spared Snow's life, but they all saw him riding off with the enemy and couldn't remember seeing him during the fight. Red won't believe it and sneaks away from their safety only to have him put her hand on his chest and feel what doesn't beat back.

"Do you think they'd still love you if you lost that hood, Wolf?"

"Do you think you'd think that if you had a heart, Hunstman?"

Red will never raise kids who will be able to play with other kids beneath the full moon or have a goodbye that isn't followed by bloodshed. But she'll always have love bites on her neck, letters sent by dove, shaking hands and a dagger with the only heart that matters carved into it which he ties around her waist before sending her back.

~*~

"Can't you tell it to be quiet." Regina complains without venom, the whine continuing to follow them through the forest. He cups his hands around his mouth and tilts back his head, but is cut off mid howl. "Nevermind."


End file.
